POLITICIANS TO NOW GIVE PROGRESS REPORTS EVERY 3 MONTHS

NHLANGANO – Politicians will have to give progress reports in their constituencies every three months.

This is contained in the social accountability initiative that was introduced by the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development to the Shiselweni Region chiefs in a meeting held in Nhlangano yesterday.  It was said that the same initiative would be presented in all the three other regions of the country. It was said that this included all politicians in the positions of Members of Parliament (MP), indvuna yenkhundla and bucopho. It was further said that the need for the social accountability initiative arose from calls from key stakeholders and citizens. It was noted during the launch of the initiative that at the time of the political unrest, there were petitions that were delivered and, when follow-ups were made, it was gathered that some had been written by a few individuals, who claimed that their contents were what everyone wanted from their constituencies.

Mandate

This was said to have happened in Parliament, where parliamentarians made varying utterances, claiming to be acting on a mandate from the people. Director of Decentralisation in the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Dumisani Sithole, informed the chiefs and tindvuna who attended the event that Minister David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala went to some of the chiefdoms to find out if what was being said in the petititions was what they wanted and the response was to the negative. In fact, he said there was no trace of the meetings wherein same was discussed, adding that those meetings were to be held in the chiefdoms. It was said that there was no platform for political engagements between the people and their local politicians and that the same politicians did not have a reporting back platform to the electorates, once elected.

Sithole, when making his presentation, further said there was no framework and system for public participation in local governance. “Politicians usually carry an uncoordinated political mandate from the people, and this initiative will correct that. Now that there will be recorded meetings, we will have a trace of when the meetings were held and if the things they said in Parliament were really said by the people,” added Sithole. He explained that the lack of feedback and giving a mandate to their representatives led to poor service delivery and, by extension, a poor government image.

Experienced

Sithole said the damage that was experienced by the country was as a result of a few individuals, who claimed to have been following what most citizens wanted, yet this was not true. He said the reason they engaged the chiefs was that everything that happened in the communities was done through them. It was said that everyone was supposed to account for the public resources in that the politicians had an obligation to take responsibility for their actions. Sithole said the politicians were getting constituency allowances because they were going back and forth to Parliament and to the people, hence they had to be accountable for that money. It was also explained that the accountability was part of the decentralisation policy, which was to improve coordination, transparency in public affairs and the use of public resources. “The politicians are paid by our taxes, hence they have to account for it,” added Sithole. He said the accountability initiative included the elected politicians’ promises along members of the electorate’s desires to come out with overall consolidated citizens’ mandate.

Sithole said Section 239 of the Constitution provides that those in leadership, whether elected or appointed, should be transparent and accountable to the people they represented and served. It was said that the initiative, therefore, was aimed at creating vibrant constituencies for responsive, transparent and accountable local governance, but most importantly, to balance the scale between the people and their government. Questions that arose after the presentation included one that was asked by Zikhotheni Chief Zwide Nxumalo, who wanted to know who was responsible for the MP after being elected. He asked if it was the ministry or Parliament, adding that in the event the MPs went astray, who was to blame between Parliament, tinkhundla or chiefs?

Sithole responded by stating that in the Constitution, there were leadership codes of conduct that provided that those in leadership, whether elected or appointed, should be transparent and accountable to the people they represented. Section 242 (1) further says that an officer who contravenes the code may, after due process of the law, be dismissed or removed from office by reasons of such breach or abuse and may be disqualified from holding any public office, either generally or for a specific period. Chief Prince Dambuza Lukhele questioned why the reporting back failed as it already existed in the decentralisation and Tinkhundla guidelines. Sithole said they were starting somewhere, adding that the initiative was part of ensuring that it was done.

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